the giants

Cruise America and El Monte are the biggest names in the RV Rental Business. Certainly there are pluses and minues with going with a big company. Moderator Dave is planning another RV trip soon, and I know for his upcoming trip he is planning to use Cruise America because they had a big special.

I don't really have any personal feeling about the companies, but I would say that I would take complaints that you might read with a grain of salt. First of all, people with problems are always going to make themselves more known than people will good experiences. Second, when you're dealing with something like RV rentals, you've got people spending a lot of money on something they probably haven't used before and quite often can have expectations that just aren't very reasonable. Its really a combination for the rental company to be blamed for things that might not be their fault. I'm not saying there aren't legitimate problems and complaints but I would try to find the specifics of each complaint and see if its something that you need to really be concerned about for your trip.

In any case, knowledge is the most important thing you can have if you want to rent and RV. Make sure you know if renting an RV is the right option for your trip and if you go that route, make sure you inspect it and know how to operate it before you leave the rental location.

It is I that has booked with C/America, but it is the first time with them so it's not a recommendation. With 2 such large company's you are going to get mixed reactions from people and there expectations as Michael suggested. With thousands of rentals going out there are bound to be some problems from time to time with whoever you book, but I will keep my fingers crossed. Like most nationals it's quite possible that a particular centre isn't as good as some of it's counter parts within the same company and I think you have to go with your instincts.

We'd rather spend a bit more to get a good, well equipped, clean, young (and suitably cool ;-) ) rental

I have always found the Motorhomes to be of a very similar spec [model for model] from any company you hire from. There only appears to be a small number of mftrs of the R.V's.

Personal experience's.

Well, this is the problem I guess. Cruise America does seem to attract a lot of complaints and a lot of compliments, but they are far and away the largest I suppose.

Any more ideas out there?

People will judge on there own personal experience and you will get differing opinions, but biggest isn't always best. C/A are a big company with vast experience, I couldn't find a reason not to deal with them and they offered the best deal at that time. I could have a great experience, recommend them and then you have a poor experience, there are no guarantees unfortunately. I would google Los Angeles/R.V rentals and check your options.

I actually prefer dealing with smaller company's that I feel I can trust and be treated as a person and not just be a "booking number" to them.

If you could start and finish your trip in San Fran then I had a great experience with such a company, run by the Graner family.
They have well looked after Motorhomes are very helpful, friendly and do an airport pick up service for a fee. It is S/F only and have a very limited amount of rentals and often get booked up well in advance.